With a team full of returners on the boys side, Española Valley golf coach James Flores is optimistic this is the year the Sundevils will have somebody playing in the New Mexico Class 4A State Tournament.
“They’re looking good,” he said. “They’re a veteran group that have been playing together a little while, mixed with some newcomers. They’re a solid group.”
The team is led by Ben Maynes, who Flores is quite confident will be playing in the postseason in the state tournament.
“He would be the leader of the boys,” the coach said. “Definitely one of his goals is to be able to qualify for the state tournament.”
That is something Maynes has been aiming at for some time, he said.
“That’s been my goal every year since I started playing for Española as a freshman,” he said. “I really believe this is the year I’m going to be able to do it.”
Maynes is a golf lifer, Flores said, which makes him a likely candidate to fulfill his goal.
“He’s played since he was a little kid,” he said. “He has the most experience both in golf and competition-wise.”
Senior Adam Gonzales also looks like he’s got an outside shot at qualifying, Flores said.
Junior Dan Purdy and sophomore Matthew Abeyta also are turning in solid rounds.
“I am looking at them competing in most of the tournaments that we have lined up for the spring,” Flores said. “I would like for them to have expectations of themselves to be able to compete if not be able to qualify for state.”
Since the four know each other so well, they’re able to help each other out on the course, he said.
“We’re trying to get them to qualify individually or as a group,” Flores said. “They’re able to push each other and they’re able to learn from each other and shoot some scores that will be able to get them to state. They all did group pretty closely to each other last year at districts, but it’s going to require multiple efforts for them to get to state.”
The team has a certain advantage over many other high school golf programs, Maynes pointed out, in that they get to play nationally-rated links in the Black Mesa Golf Club that is ranked among the top 100 public courses in the country.
“I know how lucky we are to be able to play a PGA-certified course regularly,” he said. “That’s so good for our games.”
The course is long and requires intelligent shot-making, Flores said, and the latter translates to any course.
“A lot of the times in practice, I want to hear from them, ‘What are you thinking? What is the mindset?’” he said. “Psychologically, golf isn’t just hitting the ball. It’s figuring out what you’re trying to do with it and telling yourself that you can hit this type of shot. If you’re telling yourself ‘Don’t end up in the water,’ or ‘Don’t hit it out of bounds,’ more than likely, that’s where you’re going to end up. You have to keep telling yourself, ‘I can hit this shot.’”
On the girls side, Flores has high hopes in particular for senior Jaclynne Martinez, who won a couple of tournaments last season, but just didn’t have enough low rounds to qualify for state.
“I would like to see her be able to qualify,” he said. “She has the potential and the opportunity to do so. She had a pretty strong fall.”
Fellow senior Andrea Montoya has been battling through an injury this spring, but Flores is hopeful she will have rounded into form by the time the District 2/6 tournament rolls around.
“Both of them have been playing since they were sophomores,” he said.
The remainder of the roster are girls all playing for the first time.
“It’s a fun challenge that I’ve enjoyed so far, especially when we’re having bad days,” Flores said. “Whenever we’re not hitting the ball very well, I tell them, ‘Today we’re building character.’”
There has been quite a bit of character building for the new group, but they are taking to instruction, he said.
“When I get a new group or a new player, I like to start them off with the short game first, get them comfortable hitting it off the club face and feeling it,” Flores said. “Then I get them to the range and start building their swing. But they have to understand that putting is important and chipping on the green is important. And they have to realize that they can’t get discouraged if they’re not hitting the ball the way they envisioned.”